40 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 9, 2005 | SECTION ONE Theater By Justin Hayford A merica may be the Western country least receptive to absurdism, the post-World War II European literary movement that holds the universe is indifferent to human actions no matter how noble, well-intentioned, or pathetic. For Americans all actions serve a purpose, but especially those that increase our net worth; with the aid of pop psychology and sufficient profits, the uni- verse will smile on us in perpe- tuity. And given Americans’ mania for novelty, how impor- tant can a 50-year-old art move- ment be anyway? Yet absurdism is alive and well in Europe, being carried on in part by its most popular, prolific current proponent, Matei Visniec. Born in Romania and given political asylum in France in 1987, Visniec didn’t receive his American premiere until 2004, nearly 30 years after he wrote his first play. Of course, his work wasn’t shown in Romania until its lib- eration in 1989, when he quickly became the most frequently produced playwright in his home country: though he’d written 20 scripts by then, they’d all been banned. When Old Clown Wanted pre- miered at the Biennale Bonn in 1992, it put Visniec on the inter- national map: since then it’s been performed in at least a dozen countries. It still wasn’t produced in the States until July 2004, when the New Jersey Repertory Company gave it its U.S. premiere under Gregory A. Fortner’s direction. Now Trap Door Theatre offers its produc- tion, also staged by Fortner. It opened November 18 but reopens this week after a brief hiatus for performances at New York’s “Act French” festival. It’s easy to understand the appeal of Old Clown Wanted—a sweet but disturbing portrait of three aging out-of-work per- formers—in Trap Door’s intelli- gent, well-paced production. Waiting in a barren, windowless anteroom to audition for one spot with an unnamed circus troupe are the Stan Laurel- esque Niccolo, his bullying for- mer friend Filippo, and their Machiavellian mentor Peppino. In an obvious homage to Beckett’s seminal work of absur- dist theater, Waiting for Godot, the clowns spend most of their time puffing themselves up and belittling one another. But unlike Beckett, Visniec makes it clear that his characters have been deeply injured by their obsolescence, both professional and existential. Each drags around a suitcase stuffed with broken-down props through which he can relive his glory days—although the unsophisti- cated, unimaginative routines they enact for one another sug- gest they never worked much beyond the birthday-and-bar- mitzvah circuit. (“No one laughs at somersaults anymore,” Niccolo laments.) However questionable their talent, though, these clowns once felt loved in their profession. Now they’re left to snipe at one another while clutching at an impersonal crumb tossed them by a prospective employer who can’t be bothered to show up for the audition—if he exists at all. Fortner’s three actors take an aptly understated approach, emphasizing the weariness and looming paralysis of these lost souls. Circus-Szalewski as Niccolo, John Gray as Filippo, Unplanned Obsolescence Matei Visniec’s absurdist take on aging into irrelevance OLD CLOWN WANTED TRAP DOOR THEATRE Old Clown Wanted WHEN Reopens 12/8, 8 PM. Through 1/14: Thu-Sat 8 PM. WHERE Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland PRICE $20, two for one Thu INFO 773-384-0494 BEATA PILCH